I (HEART) Pechakucha

The Western Michigan Pechakucha June crew in St. Joe, with yours truly’s arms raised at approximately 3:12.

Have you heard of PechaKucha? With so many platforms for creative self-expression arising today, I recently attended a PechaKucha night in southwest Michigan, finding the event and presentations inspiring and genuinely intimate. Pechakucha 20 x 20 uses a simple Power Point presentation format where presenters shows 20 images for 20 seconds, with images advancing automatically, coupled with spoken word ‘captioning’ of each, making for a sometimes hilarious, sometimes wildly creative mini-performance. People have referred to PechaKucha as a “Local Ted Talk”, but while TED is brilliant it is very different. TED is top down but PechaKucha is bottom up, giving a lot of everyday people a chance to share extraordinary ideas.  

The whole deal was started by a group of Japanese architects almost 20 years ago in Tokyo, Japan, with PechaKucha Nights growing globally into informal and fun gatherings where creative people get together and share their ideas, works, thoughts, holiday snaps -- just about anything, really -- in the PechaKucha 20x20 format. Every PechaKucha Night city is hosted by a local organizer – in this case Lana Defrancesco of St Joseph, Michigan - who has an annual Handshake Agreement with PechaKucha HQ to run their event series, ensuring that each PechaKucha Night is relevant to that city, and can create a unique platform to uncover that community’s creativity. And it does! 

Many cities beyond Tokyo offer virtually no public spaces where people can show and share their work in a relaxed way. If you have just graduated from college and finished your first project in the real world, where can you show it? It probably won't make a magazine, and you may not have enough photos for a gallery show or a lecture, but PechaKucha is the perfect platform to show and share your work. Anyone can present -- this is the beauty of PechaKucha Nights. Astrid's daughter presented when she was 5 (about her artwork) and Mark's mother presented when she was 69 (about her elaborate wedding cake creations).

The key to a great presentation is to present something you Love. Good PechaKucha presentations are the ones that uncover the unexpected -- unexpected talent and unexpected ideas. Some PechaKuchas tell great stories about a project or a trip. Some are incredibly personal, some incredibly funny, but all are very original to each individual.  The best presentation of our recent Thursday night gathering by far was by the die-hard quilter whose entire talk sprang from how she deftly hides fabric from her husband. In the Q & A afterward, when people asked where they found the inspiration for their talk, she answered, “I said to my sister, ‘I’m the most talentless person in the world. All I can do creatively is hide fabric all over the household’ To which my sister responded, ‘Why don’t you do a talk on that?’ And a star was born. You never know when your contribution - no matter how small - might move others, evinced by room of hundreds in attendance who gave her slides of fabric as a table runner, fabric hidden in stacks of picnic baskets and on and on a standing ovation. I’m considering my own personal talk before the year is out, with working titles like “Me and My Indian Chief” and “Serpents, Snakes and Rethinking The Garden of Eden.” Stay attuned.

Our Ceremonial Weekend

I know, I know… a beautiful Blue Racer may not be the most ideal marketing tool, considering the aversion so many — too many — folks feel when a snakes suddenly reveals its secret presence. But this scaly beast’s fluid movement had mankind recognizing the creative life force and fertility as well as duality symbolized by serpents from The Beginning . Associated with some of the oldest rituals known, snakes shed their skin, becoming entirely new creatures, making them potent figures of rebirth, transformation, immortality and Healing. “Sometimes snakes can’t slough. They can’t burst their old skin,” the writer DH Lawrence reminds us. “Then they go sick and die inside the old skin, and nobody ever sees The New Pattern. It needs a real, desperate recklessness to burst your old skin at last. You simply don’t care what happens to you. If you rip yourself in two, so long as you Get Out.” Sure there’s work to be done, trudging and sloughing and even bursting involved, but the result is a renewal, of mind, body, and Spirit, and advancement from the stagnant past into the new energetic and vital.

That’s the work that went on here this weekend during our monthly Ceremonial gathering. I’ve told so many of these weekend success stories from my own perspective, I thought I’d leave this one up to the people. “Last evening was Fantastic,” wrote Wild Heart Guide J. Scott Campbell. “Love the power of the energy that gets going at Higher Haven.” Scott is truly a Force of Nature and you’ll have to come out and discover what his Forest Therapy Walks — inspired by the Japanese practice of Shinrin-yoku, or "Forest Bathing”— are all about. I’ll close with Mindy’s takeaway, a new community member who experienced her first visit here. We’ll be doing it again next month, along with our Medicinal Herb Walk Weekend, Summer Wednesday Meditation class, and other happenings into the late Summer and early Fall. Toksha, Until then.

"The Higher Haven Retreat Center is a truly wonderful and majestic place. The property is breathtaking and the retreat house has one feeling instantly at ease. Paul is an incredibly gracious host and a joy to converse with. Upon arrival and getting settled in, Higher Haven immediately felt like a home away from home. The overnight retreat culminated in an ancient Ceremony that led to an overwhelming feeling of release and being born anew. It felt like everyone in attendance had all bonded and become a little community. The celebratory feast after was fresh, healthy, and delicious, as was the food provided throughout the entire retreat. My experience at Higher Haven was one on I look back upon fondly. It truly is a place above all others. I want to thank Paul for facilitating such a healing experience, and look forward to returning!" – M.R. 

More On Grief, Loss and Love

My Brother Mark and The Big Dog Bentley share a moment of repose during a 2018 summer visit.

As if our hearts weren’t heavy enough, our cold, Spring season of loss actually began months before the loss of my brother Mark. Way back mid-Winter, just after my January travels, we suffered the tragic death of The Big Dog. Being 105 lbs. plus, a Gentle Giant like Bentley, with his big Butterscotch Butt and fragile hips, lead to an incident prompting his peaceful departure on a frigid February morning. February ended up being one of the coldest, wettest and sunless months in Midwest recorded history, which is exactly how it felt, down to the bone. As to an appropriate dirge for B., aka Sweet Boy, aka CodeBentley, aka Tuff Stuff, the slightly edited version of Bruce Springsteen’s Terry Song will always be Bentley’s song, God rest his sweet, unconditionally loving canine soul. I’m finally on the hunt for a Dog as it’s long, long overdue, so watch for a Higher Haven Mascot as in Hungarian Vizsla (?), Black Lab(?), Golden Retriever(?), Italian Mastiff(?) Husky(?), Wolf(??) pup joining our ranks sometime soon. And we’re back On with a regular monthly overnight, an extended June Solstice weekend retreat, a July Summer Herbal Immersive and September Women’s retreat with some additional offerings to help turn the next few months into a summer of Hope and Healing. 

“They say you can’t take it with you, but I think that they’re wrong
Cause all I know is I woke up this morning and something Big was gone…
Gone into that dark ether where you’re still young and hard and cold
Just like when they built you Brother, they broke the mold
Now your death is upon us and we’ll return your ashes to the earth
And I know you’ll take comfort in knowing you’ve been roundly blessed and cursed
But Love Is A Power Greater Than Death just like the songs and stories told
And when she built you brother, she broke the mold
That attitude is a Power Greater Than Death just like the songs and stories told
And when they built you Brothers… “